Edmonds City Council set to approve contract with police association Tuesday night

The Edmonds City Council will meet in committees Tuesday night, but first is scheduled to approve one important piece of business: a three-year collective bargaining agreement with the Edmonds Police Officers Association. The full text of the 50-page agreement, which took eight months to negotiate and will cover 2014-2017, can be found here.

“We think we have a good, competitive package,” said Carrie Hite, who oversees the city’s human resources department, adding the negotiations took a while “because we were far apart on the compensation/benefits items.”

Police staff covered by the agreement, defined as law enforcement commissioned employees, will receive cost-of-living adjustments of 2 percent for 2014 and 2.5 percent for 2015 and 2016, Hite noted, calling them “commensurate with the marketplace.”

Hite said that the contract also reflects a change in the practice of “shift bids,” which is aimed at reducing overtime costs. For example, if an officer is on vacation, and chooses to come back voluntarily to cover a shift, that officer will no longer get paid overtime, Hite said, adding that current practice provides both for overtime and the ability to bank vacation time. “In this scenario, they get paid straight time, and then bank vacation hours,” she said.

The proposed agreement also provides the ability for both sides to reopen negotiations on health insurance during the contract’s three-year period. The parties recognize there is “less than complete satisfaction” with current health plan offerings, but acknowledge that issue can’t be resolved in time for the agreement to be executed, the agreement states.

The council meeting to cover this item will start at 6:15 p.m., following what is scheduled to be a 45-minute executive session on potential litigation that starts at 5:30 p.m. The council meeting will be followed by committee meetings at approximately 7 p.m. All meetings will be in the Public Safety Complex, 250 5th Ave. N.

The committee meetings are work sessions for the city council and staff. Members of the public are welcome to observe the
meeting, but public participation is limited to making comments at the end of the meeting, with a three-minute limit per person.

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